Wednesday, May 14, 2014

What You Should Know About Tea

Tea is a fun and healthy drink. There are many health benefits to it and it is interesting to know a lot about it. We have compiled another list of cool things that you ought to know about tea. Once you read these, you'll want to get some tea for yourself.

"Tea", the word, comes from the Chinese word, T'e; this word hails from a Chinese dialect called Amoy. The word is the name of the plant that the tea leaves come from.

"Chai" comes from the Mandarin word "Ch'a".

Tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. Black tea, green tea, and oolong tea all come from leaves that are pulled from the same tea plants; what makes them different are their processes. Black tea is fermented, oolong is semi fermented, white tea is unfermented, and green tea is unfermented as well. White tea is from the same bush as the others but is picked before the tea buds open.

According to Chinese stories, Emperor Shen Nong was the first man to discover tea in 2737 BC. His servants were purifying water and some leaves from tea bushes fell into the water and created tea. In tea's early days, it was for medicinal use only.

When a Jesuit priest named Jasper visited China from Portugal, he traded with men in the region and was allowed to bring the tea leaves back to Portugal with him. This is believed to be how tea made its way to Europe.

All the way until the mid-1800s, China was the world's biggest producer of tea and their main customer was Great Britain. Great Britain began finding tea from places like India, Africa, and other regions when it grew harder to find tea from China.

United Arab Emirates is the biggest consumer of tea in the world, consuming 14 pounds of tea every year. China is still the world's biggest producer of it. England comes in seventh, the United States is in 69th.

Tea used to not be brewed from tea bags, that did not happen until Thomas Sullivan, an American, sent some to customers in some silk pouches. His customers did not know to take the tea out of the silk.

The world's most expensive tea hails from China, in the mountains of Ya'An, located in the wonderful province of Sichuan. The way it gets to be the world's most expensive tea is due to how it is grown. Field workers fertilize the tea plants with the feces from the pandas since it is so nutritional. How much for a cup? About $200.